Redbook Heroes: Strength & Spirit Awards

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You know that little voice you sometimes hear that calls you to make a difference? The one that nudges you to stand up, say something, and fight for what you feel is right? Actress and activist Ashley Judd heard that voice — and now she follows it across the globe to fight poverty, AIDS, and violence against women. Read how six other amazing women (plus one stand-up guy) are making big changes in our world, one small step at a time.

SHARON LANGSHUR:

HELPING FAMILIES COPE WITH ILLNESS

Five days after the birth of their first child, Matthew, Sharon and Eric Langshur received terrifying news — their newborn son had a severe heart defect and would need major surgery. A few weeks later, Langshur found herself in an intensive-care unit waiting for her infant son to wake up after his first open heart surgery. Cell phones weren't allowed in the hospital, and with only one pay phone available to 40 families in the unit, it was a challenge to keep friends and family abreast of Matthew's progress.

It was Sharon's brother, Mark, who came up with a solution: He built a Website, which he called Matthew's CarePage, where the Langshurs could post news on Matthew's developments and receive messages of support. Soon the family was receiving nearly 2,000 hits per day on their CarePage. "We would read messages by Matthew's bedside and feel enormously supported by our friends, family, and even people we didn't know who were going through a similar experience," says Langshur, 44. "It was so powerful and helped us get through a very difficult time."

After three surgeries over the course of 18 months, Matthew's condition began to improve, and Langshur was inspired to share the CarePage concept with other families. "We wanted everyone who faced a medical crisis to feel the support we experienced," she says. So in 2000, she and Eric started CarePages, a Chicago company that helps families facing illness to build personal Web pages for communication and support.

CarePages are now included as part of patient services at more than 550 health-care facilities across North America; it has 2 million members in 190 countries. "In 2006 we received over 140,000 emails from users thanking us and telling us how much they appreciate the service," says Langshur.

Today, Matthew is an active 9-year-old with two younger siblings, Alex, 8, and Elizabeth, 5. The Langshurs recently coauthored a book, We Carry Each Other, which tells the inspiring stories of CarePages visitors. All proceeds from the book will benefit the CarePages Foundation, which the couple formed last year to build on their mission of better, more compassionate health care for families.
-- Crystal Martin

On the NBC hit series Heroes, Ali Larter plays both Niki Sanders, a struggling single mom, and her dark alter ego, Jessica. The one impulse these two women share is a fierce devotion to Niki's son — and Larter is passionate about the safety and happiness of kids off-screen as well. "If anyone needs protecting in this world, it's children," says Larter. "There's nothing better than when you see their faces light up." For the past year, the 31-year-old actress has been lighting up the faces of severely ill children through Art of Elysium, a Los Angeles nonprofit dedicated to enriching the lives of artists and critically ill kids by coordinating hospital visits and providing children's facilities with musical instruments, CDs, and art supplies. Larter's first experience with the nonprofit included spending an afternoon doing arts and crafts and eating pizza with a group of 8- to 13-year-olds, giving the kids a break from the hospital and helping them learn to use creative outlets to express their feelings. At the day's end, one girl gave Larter the tote bag she'd painted. "They're dealing with these terminal diseases, and the generosity in their hearts is mind-blowing," Larter says. "All I want to do is make these kids smile, make them feel beautiful, and play games with them — I mean, I feel lucky that they want to hang out with me!"

Larter has worked with kids since she started out as an actress in New York, where she volunteered with Sanctuary for Families, which provides support services for battered women and their children. "I loved it!" she says. "Even if I was just giving the moms a break so that they could go on a job interview or whatever, I played with the kids and helped create an environment that made them feel good. That's just where my energy wants to go." Her TV role aside, Larter is reluctant to accept the "hero" title — she reserves that honor for people like her sister, a third-grade teacher and mother of two. "She is a hero for taking on the responsibility of teaching those children," Larter says. "A hero to me is someone who inspires and educates through their actions every day." —Cristina Desposito

Ever since the Columbine school shootings in 1999, Abigail Spangler has watched with growing outrage as more and more innocent people are gunned down each year in our country — but on April 16 her outrage was suddenly transformed into action. "Virginia Tech was my final breaking point," says the 42-year-old Alexandria, VA, mother of two, who's a cellist with the Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic. "I had to do something."

Spangler was stunned to learn that the Virginia Tech shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, was able to purchase two guns: Virginia gun laws are known for having loopholes, and the background check he underwent failed to uncover his history of mental illness. "I decided to e-mail my friends and invite them to participate in a protest against lax gun laws — the responses flooded my inbox," says Spangler.

Six days after the massacre, Spangler's protest came to life, a powerful symbol of the horror of April 16: In memory of the 32 victims, she brought together 32 people dressed in black with Virginia Tech-colored remembrance ribbons; they lay down in front of Alexandria's City Hall for three minutes, representing the short period of time it took Cho to buy his gun. Spangler also spoke about the protesters' goals: background checks for all gun buyers, better law-enforcement access to crime gun information, and the reinstatement of the federal assault weapons ban (the ban expired in 2004), which would make it illegal for citizens to buy semiautomatic weapons, like AK-47s.

Spangler launched more protests in other cities, and to get even more people involved in changing our nation's gun laws, she created protesteasyguns.com. The site provides information about federal and state laws, links to petitions, and instructions for organizing your own protest. Twenty-seven protests have taken place so far, including several on August 28, the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 march on Washington. "One took place in front of Realco Guns in District Heights, MD — the ninth-largest seller of guns that are found at crime scenes in the United States — which felt pretty powerful," says Spangler.

Spangler is now working to set up Protest Easy Guns events on college campuses. She has also met with Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush, who will soon introduce legislation that would require federal licensing and registration of every gun in the country. "The protesteasyguns.com movement is like a drumbeat," says Spangler. "Each protest is a beat, and the more people beat the drum, the louder it will get. I hope the noise will soon become deafening and that our lawmakers will have no choice but to listen." —Lindsey Palmer

No figure embodies heroism more powerfully than a firefighter, a fact that hit home for Denis Leary when his cousin and a close friend, along with four other firefighters, were killed in a 1999 warehouse fire in Worcester, MA. In response to this devastating loss, the 50-year-old actor, husband, and father of two created a foundation to help ensure that all firefighters have the equipment and training they need to save lives and stay safe. "These guys' whole job is to help," says Leary. "I couldn't think of a better group to support." To date, The Leary Firefighters Foundation has donated more than $5 million to Massachusetts and New York fire departments.

When the 9/11 tragedy hit, claiming the lives of 343 firefighters, Leary also established the Fund for New York's Bravest. "We prided ourselves on being the second-quickest charity to get money to the victims' families — $1.9 million worth," says Leary. "We literally just wrote them checks." The Fund has also paid for a command center and a high-rise simulator for FDNY's training campus.

Through this work, Leary has witnessed firsthand the close bonds between firefighters — ties that inspired the FX dramedy he cocreated and stars in, Rescue Me. "I wanted to examine the experience of a group of post-9/11 firemen," says Leary, whose character, Tommy Gavin, also lost a cousin — in Gavin's case, to 9/11. Now in its fourth season, Rescue Me has been a critical and popular hit: Leary received Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in both 2006 and 2007. But he's most gratified by firefighters' praise of the show for its gritty reality. "I just want to honor and support these guys for what they do for us every day," says Leary, "meeting incredible challenges and facing major danger with just one goal: our safety." —Lindsey Palmer

When Vickie Elisa got married in her early 20s, she saw a rosy financial future ahead. Both she and her husband had steady jobs and a good income, so when credit card offers started pouring in, Elisa kept accepting. "I just thought we could afford it," she says. But within a year, she and her husband were $30,000 in debt. When the two divorced — partly due to money stress — Elisa took on the entirety of that debt; she felt it was the only way to salvage her credit. During the six years it took her to pay it off, Elisa worked three jobs and moved out of her Tucker, GA, apartment — for a brief period, she was homeless. "I had to sleep in my car — a car we shouldn't have bought in the first place!" recalls the 49-year-old mom, now a marketing pro for her county's board of health.

Even in the midst of her troubles, Elisa was reaching out to others. She helped to found the Georgia chapter of Mothers' Voices, a national organization dedicated to increasing HIV/AIDS awareness. Elisa, who lost her brother to the disease and was elected president of the chapter in 1989, learned that in addition to their health, many of the women Mothers' Voices served were deeply concerned about their finances. "Talking with these women, I began to see how economics was a factor that placed them at risk for making poor choices when it came to their sexual health," says Elisa — choices like trading sex for money or remaining in abusive relationships as a way to make ends meet.

With the help of Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER), a nonprofit that educates women about finances, Elisa created a program for Mothers' Voices clients. When it was suggested that she teach the program herself, she balked. "I didn't want to talk in front of people about the stupid choices I made," she says. But she got over her fear and launched the "Smart Women and Money" workshops — and what started out as a yearlong initiative is now entering its 10th year. Elisa has expanded the free program throughout Georgia and has held workshops in other states, reaching more than 40,000 women. "Finances affect every single aspect of our lives — from affording a house to buying groceries," she says. "The more we empower at-risk women to take control of their finances, the more likely they will lead healthier, happier — and richer — lives."
—Shaquinah Taylor

When country singer LeAnn Rimes arrived on the scene in 1995, she was the little girl with the big voice. Now all grown up, the 25-year-old, two-time Grammy award-winning artist has proved she has more than the voice — she also has the big heart.

On her latest album, Family, the Mississippi-born Rimes sings about love and personal growth. Her own journey has taught her that she's meant to help others. "I believe I was put on this earth to tell stories and to raise people's spirits, and to be a good role model," she says. That's why she has always given back — through the Children's Miracle Network, the Humane Society of South Mississippi, and with performances at the CMA Music Festival, an annual charity concert. But last year, Rimes was drawn to a new mission: After meeting servicemen and servicewomen from Brooke Army Medical Center at a concert in San Antonio, she learned of the nonprofit Coalition to Salute American Heroes, which assists injured troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and was moved to lend her hand — and voice — to help. "I was touched and inspired by their efforts, and I knew I wanted to do something to draw attention to the phenomenal work they do," Rimes says.

To raise funds for those veterans and awareness of their sacrifice, Rimes is having breakfast with millions of Americans: Through December, her face will appear on Kellogg cereal boxes with an invitation to download an acoustic version of her tune "I Want You With Me" for a minimum $1 donation to the Coalition. Rimes also performs at military bases and visits disabled soldiers. Recently, she surprised an injured Navy veteran with a handicap-accessible van. Says Rimes, "I firmly believe that helping war veterans is not a political issue, but an American one."

Four years ago, on her way home from a party, Katie Sepich, a graduate student at New Mexico State University, was attacked, raped, strangled, and set on fire. Hunters found her lifeless, burned body the next day at a city dump. "There's no way to describe the pit of grief Katie's death caused our family," says Jayann Sepich of her 22-year-old daughter. Police were able to collect Katie's attacker's DNA from fragments of his blood and skin found underneath her fingernails — proof that she had fought hard to escape — and Sepich was hopeful that her daughter's killer would be found with the evidence. "I figured that a man who committed such an evil crime would be arrested again, and that's how we'd find him," says the Carlsbad, NM, mother. Three months later, Katie's killer was arrested for burglary, but because New Mexico law didn't require DNA samples to be taken for felony arrests — only for convictions — he was released. Only after he'd been convicted of felony burglary and incarcerated did police take his DNA sample; he was finally ID'd as Katie's killer in November 2006, more than three years after her death.

Sepich was furious that her daughter's killer had been at large when he could have been caught years earlier. She contacted her state representative, John Heaton, who helped her draft "Katie's bill," a law requiring DNA samples to be taken for anyone arrested for a felony, just as fingerprints and mug shots are. "Case studies — like that of André Crawford in Illinois, who wasn't required to give a DNA sample during his felony arrest for theft in 2003 but went on to murder 11 people after his release — show that the passing of this law could actually prevent violent crimes, in addition to solving them," says Sepich. "That's why I'm fighting so hard."

Sepich lobbied at the state capitol, testified at hearings, and spoke at press conferences on the bill's behalf. Lawmakers were moved by Sepich's articulate and passionate pleas in memory of her daughter, and Katie's bill passed in New Mexico in February 2006; it took effect in January 2007. "After it passed, I heard my daughter's voice saying, 'The rest of the country,'" Sepich says. "I contacted legislators in every state that didn't already have a similar law — 44 in total." The law has since passed in 11 more states, and 26 others have introduced it into legislation. "What if a law could have saved Katie's life?" asks Sepich. "I think of all the thousands of mothers who, if we pass this law, will not have to bury their daughters, like I did." —Nicole Yorio